01.03.2016
Report by J-P.Huhtala (VRC race reporter)
2016 Season 1 and round 3, Carpet 4 Volker
After Bangkok and Orlando, this serie travelled to Carpet 4 Volker circuit. Earlier at this track Britains Graham Raistrick won 1:12 spec cars race. He had good race against USA Dana Bailes, who finally had to surrender to Raistrick, but only 0.064 seconds margin.
This modified series leader Bailes was also here, and many other top drivers of this class.
This track is familiar from the worlds 2015, and its designed by 1:10 ISTC superstar Ronald Volker.
QUALIFYING
Dana Bailes didnt gave any mercy to his fellow competitors when qualifying round was held.
His pace was absolutely amazing and he left second place runner, Graham Raistrick with almost 12seconds margin. Third place driver, Hongkong`s Carson Yeung had good pace but there was no chances to get to Bailes pace. Andre Fossto from Sweden got the fourth grid and his pace was pretty similar with Yeung. Expectations little pit collapsed, if we wanted to guess who would be in charge at final. That 12seconds lead from Bailes, was something special but also pit frustrating to others.
Or was there some magics in Raistrick mind, was he just settled to second grid and didnt pressure to win TQ.
Dana Bailes was on fire at qualify, 12seconds distance to Raistrick didnt tell everything about Graham`s pace.
RACE
As the final started, Bailes and Raistrick were setting the pace, and also it looked that Raistrick`s pace was there. He hadnt gave his best at qualy or he had just founded something to this final. After few laps these two were driving very close each other. At start of third lap, Bailes did mistake behind corner two and collided to barrier.
This mistake took almost 4seconds and he dropped to fourth place. Raistrick was leading, Fossto in second and Schiffer from Germany, at third place, one second behind Fossto. This was going to be interesting, as Bailes would have to pressure his pace and get back to the top. But it was pretty obvious that he would get back very quickly, as his pace was extremely good. In start of lap four, Fossto at second place got trouble, he cutted corner two and flipped his car and dropped from second to sixth place. No time, when Huhtala made a mistake front of Fossto and Fossto got fifth place, behind Hasegawa.
At the lead, Raistrick struggled also. At corner four, he cutted and flipped his car and marshal was needed. By this mistake he had lost his advantage to Schiffer in second place and now Schiffer was behind Raistrick`s tail and Bailes had achived Schiffer with his fantastic pace. These three were really close each other when they were heading backstaright at this lap. And after few corners, Bailes showed his skills and turned to lead. Fossto at fifth place had got his rhytm back and was chasing Hasegawa at fourth place, only half second behind. But at seventh lap Hasegawa made Fossto`s race little easier as he cutted the corner end of the lap and dropped to seventh place. Now Fossto had fourth place and was chasing Schiffer in third place, 1.4 seconds margin.
But either our leader Bailes, didnt do this easy himself, he cutted the corner eight in lap 9 and Raistrick was so close that he turned to lead.
Graham drove magnificent final, unfortunatelly his pace wasnt good enough to pressure more Bailes at front.
In very same lap when Bailes did his mistake, Schiffer at third place, under Fossto`s pressure, made mistake. He went wide backstraight corner, cutted the next one and Fossto got the third spot. Now Yeung had achived also this duo, and was pressuring Schiffer about fifth place. Few laps later, Bailes had got Raistrick once again in striking distance and was waiting the place to pass. But in lap eleven, at backstraight corner, Bailes cutted and collided inside barrier. Raistrick got a little time to breathe when Bailes dropped two seconds behind. Yeung at fifth place, did his pressure against Schiffer and this made also result, as he had passed Schiffer and got the fourth place, only 0.8 seconds from third runner, Fossto. But next laps, few cutted corners and some colliding with fence dropped Yeung out of the top four. At meanwhile Hasegawa had got his ”battle rhytm” and had gained Yeung and Schiffer. And also he, didnt wait long as he passed both of these and got he fourth place. This man was on fire. But without troubles didnt go Hasegawa`s pushing, as he collided and flipped his car at backstraight corner and he dropped back to behind Yeung and Schiffer, to sixth place. Also man in the lead was on fire, Raistrick had drived excellent laps after his mistake and was pretty stable place at lead. Of course, Bailes was furios behind and was pushing really hard. And Bailes didnt give any mercy, drove very aggressively behind Graham and start to challenge him at 20th lap. Bailes did his move at 21th lap and passed Raistrick. His pace was just so good, and Graham`s only hope`s was in Dana`s mistakes.
At lap 25, Hasegawa who had dropped to sixth place behind Yeung and Schiffer, had once again doned fantastic laps and got the fourth place back. He was driving 1.3 seconds behind Fossto, who was in third, 8 seconds behind leader. Fossto cutted the corner at lap 24 and this helped Hasegawa lot to close the gap to Fossto. At lap 28, Fossto made this even more difficult to himself as he cutted corner four and Hasegawa went by. Now Hasegawa was holding last podium place. But no time went by, when Hasegawa was in trouble once again, pace was good but there was mistakes also. Little shaking, or what was it but few wide lines and cutted corner made passing to Fossto very easy.
Andre Fossto drived to third place, he was almost surprised by Japan`s Hasegawa, who pressured Andre to his best.
Fossto had his third place back. But this 49years old Japanies driver hadnt surrender, he was pushing really hard, but so was also Fossto. Finaly when these warriors came to finishline, Fossto was 1.2 seconds ahead from Hasegawa. Fossto got that final podium place and Hasegawa was fourth. At the lead Bailes was setting the pace last minutes, Raistrick didnt have any weapons to challenge him and also Raistrick finalished his race at lap 32, when he cutted first corner and Bailes got more gap to him. At checkered flag Dana was 3 seconds ahead of Graham.
In SPORT level race Brasilian Sandro Lage gave a knock out to fellow racers, as he wonned this final with huge 11 seconds margin before Spanish driver Ivan Mula. Also Mula had guite easy second place run, as third place went Japan`s Eiji Miyazaki. At finishline Eiji`s gap to Mula was enormous 22 seconds. So guite stable podium places for these two at front, but Eiji had to battle his final podium place with Hans Guenther Heitsch from Germany. Finaly last podium place was solved with only 0.4 seconds margin to Miyazaki. Great racing guys!!
In CLUB level, victory went to USA driver Lee Passehl. He was over seconds faster than Portugues Nuno Lourenco, who got second place. Third podium place was driven by Ciccio Pappalardo from Italy.
Next race will be at Norge, Oslo`s track. We will see there!!
A main PRO
1|Dana Bailes|US|34|08:02.536
2|Graham Raistrick|GB|34|08:05.560
3|André Fossto|SE|33|08:00.802
4|Atsushi Hasegawa|JP|33|08:02.046
5|Raphael Schiffer|DE|33|08:04.402
6|Carson Yeung|HK|33|08:08.986
7|Ralf H. Vey|DE|32|08:03.050
8|Heikki Huhtala|FI|32|08:06.400
9|Martin Kreuzberger|DE|31|08:01.128
10|Milan Peka|CZ|31|08:09.006
A main SPORT
1|Sandro Lage|BR|33|08:13.418
2|Ivan Mula|ES|32|08:10.754
3|Eiji Miyazaki|JP|31|08:15.354
4|Hans Guenther Heitsch|DE|30|08:00.278
5|Michal Rulik|CZ|30|08:00.814
6|Joost Wouters|NL|30|08:01.474
7|Yuriy Meshkov|RU|30|08:15.182
8|Erwin Fiselberger|AT|29|08:01.310
9|Mike Bridges|CA|29|08:01.332
10|Jonathan Csernak|FR|28|08:04.886
A main CLUB
1|Lee Passehl|US|31|08:12.156
2|Nuno Lourenco|PT|30|08:01.780
3|Ciccio Pappalardo|IT|30|08:07.714
4|JON ESTEBAN MARTIN|ES|30|08:08.050
5|Markus Andreasson|SE|30|08:09.566
6|Wilfred Chin|PH|29|08:05.602
7|Giovanni Prini|IT|28|08:14.682
8|Yann Pecout|FR|27|08:04.560
9|Keith Fischer|US|26|08:02.680
10|Nick Weinrauch|CA|DNS
SEASON STANDINGS AFTER 3 ROUNDS
PRO LEVEL
1|Dana Bailes|357
2|Graham Raistrick|345
3|Atsushi Hasegawa|339
4|Raphael Schiffer|321
5|Carson Yeung|318
6|Ralf H. Vey|312
7|Heikki Huhtala|287
8|Milan Peka|273
9|Martin Kreuzberger|270
10|Billy Yeung|270
SPORT LEVEL
1|Sandro Lage|360
2|Yuriy Meshkov|321
3|Joost Wouters|318
4|Hans Guenther Heitsch|312
5|Thomas Klingen|311
6|Mike Bridges|297
7|Andrew Pimblett|238
8|Gary Sundman|235
9|Ivan Mula|234
10|Rumsey Rammuny|229
CLUB LEVEL
1|Lee Passehl|360
2|Keith Fischer|275
3|Steve Solosy|251
4|Gary Climie|237
5|Tony DELMASTRO|235
6|Nuno Lourenco|234
7|Javier Fraga|225
8|Ciccio Pappalardo|219
9|Lando Landini|210
10|Mark Raddenbury|204
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